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hebo1987's review against another edition
4.0
Kommer nog ta ett tag att smälta, vissa delar extremt vackra, vissa delar läskiga och andra delar lite långtråkiga. Intressanta karaktärer som verkligen är mångdimensionella. Stark 4 som med fördel läses så sammanhängande som möjligt.
lavoiture's review against another edition
3.0
Absolutely about 250 pages too long.
3 stars because I finished it, but I'm not even sure what happened at the end.
3 stars because I finished it, but I'm not even sure what happened at the end.
mthyrring's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
4.75
posthumusly's review against another edition
2.0
I did not like this book. I found the characters to be extremely flat without any personality. The writing was sometimes lovely, but the plot and book as a whole felt fuzzy and confusing.
zoevancauwenberg's review against another edition
4.0
What a strange tale.
If you’re up for a wild and slightly bizarre journey that combines fantasy and mystery, you’ll be in for a treat with this one.
This is a story where you continuously loose your footing. I couldn’t quite get a handle on the world and its cast of characters. And this sense of unease works incredibly well with this book. It was confusing and at times unsettling, but the story moved along and the various plot elements came together quite nicely and in surprising ways. The advocacy for libraries was wonderful and I kind of wish I could get my hands on Taryn’s book. Those bits and pieces about libraries and the discussion on transmission of books reminded me of the importance of simply keeping (or hoarding) books, just for the sake of it. As Knox writes, “an unhoused book is doomed”. So let’s hug our beloved volumes close to our chest and cherish them.
If you’re up for a wild and slightly bizarre journey that combines fantasy and mystery, you’ll be in for a treat with this one.
This is a story where you continuously loose your footing. I couldn’t quite get a handle on the world and its cast of characters. And this sense of unease works incredibly well with this book. It was confusing and at times unsettling, but the story moved along and the various plot elements came together quite nicely and in surprising ways. The advocacy for libraries was wonderful and I kind of wish I could get my hands on Taryn’s book. Those bits and pieces about libraries and the discussion on transmission of books reminded me of the importance of simply keeping (or hoarding) books, just for the sake of it. As Knox writes, “an unhoused book is doomed”. So let’s hug our beloved volumes close to our chest and cherish them.
tlindhorst's review against another edition
3.0
This book flows from modern day crime drama to fantasy to morality play. It is like being in a fast car where the driver is shouting out what’s passing but never tells you where you’re going. There were many things I liked about this book, but it also felt like important initial storylines disappeared. By the end, I had lost the plot and wasn’t sure why the story ended up where it went.
mifterkim's review against another edition
3.0
This book was certainly a thing that I now have read!
I don't regret reading it and there were parts I really liked, but I'm still not sure what was going on.
It is about books (which I'm a sucker for) and the Fae (also one of my favourite subjects) but it's also about grief, and murder, and contract killing, and whether contract killing is worse than murder, and gods (lots of them) and magic and the police and government and celebrity and incarceration and memory and sisterhood and ultimately environmentalism. And lots more. That is too many themes!
The tone and plot is also all over the place. It's a book that wears its influences on its sleeve, both those explicitly mentioned (the Da Vinci Code, Kate Mosse's Labyrinth) and those alluded to but not named for unknown reasons (The Lord of the Rings films, Game of Thrones). The tone of the book veers wildly between these types of books - it's a thriller and a mystery, then a fairy tale, with fantasy action peppered in, and some extremely harrowing kidnapping and violence thrown in as well. There are so many other influences and plot threads as well. So many. The book I would most compare it to is Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which is also an obvious but unstated influence.
The book starts really slowly, lasts a long time and then goes at absolute breakneck speed to catch up with itself at the end.
There were a lot of pieces of plot that I thought were going nowhere until the last few pages of the book, at which point everything gets resolved extremely rapidly with little satisfaction for the reader. Although there is a little piece of revelatory backstory that gets introduced, for the first time, near the very end and is never mentioned again.
There really are some lovely scenes and descriptions and a lot of it was enjoyable to read, but it was so scattered and unfocussed that I just could not like it. Also, there are some truly interminable sequences near the beginning about a book tour. The book tour, and how good the main character's book is, did not need to be in there. The time spent on that, and some other mundanities near the beginning, compared to the very little time spent wrapping up the actual plot, is very strange.
I can't honestly recommend this book but if, like me, you tend to read any book about books, you will probably read it anyway. You might not be wasting your time? I'm really still not sure.
I don't regret reading it and there were parts I really liked, but I'm still not sure what was going on.
It is about books (which I'm a sucker for) and the Fae (also one of my favourite subjects) but it's also about grief, and murder, and contract killing, and whether contract killing is worse than murder, and gods (lots of them) and magic and the police and government and celebrity and incarceration and memory and sisterhood and ultimately environmentalism. And lots more. That is too many themes!
The tone and plot is also all over the place. It's a book that wears its influences on its sleeve, both those explicitly mentioned (the Da Vinci Code, Kate Mosse's Labyrinth) and those alluded to but not named for unknown reasons (The Lord of the Rings films, Game of Thrones). The tone of the book veers wildly between these types of books - it's a thriller and a mystery, then a fairy tale, with fantasy action peppered in, and some extremely harrowing kidnapping and violence thrown in as well. There are so many other influences and plot threads as well. So many. The book I would most compare it to is Neil Gaiman's American Gods, which is also an obvious but unstated influence.
The book starts really slowly, lasts a long time and then goes at absolute breakneck speed to catch up with itself at the end.
There were a lot of pieces of plot that I thought were going nowhere until the last few pages of the book, at which point everything gets resolved extremely rapidly with little satisfaction for the reader. Although there is a little piece of revelatory backstory that gets introduced, for the first time, near the very end and is never mentioned again.
There really are some lovely scenes and descriptions and a lot of it was enjoyable to read, but it was so scattered and unfocussed that I just could not like it. Also, there are some truly interminable sequences near the beginning about a book tour. The book tour, and how good the main character's book is, did not need to be in there. The time spent on that, and some other mundanities near the beginning, compared to the very little time spent wrapping up the actual plot, is very strange.
I can't honestly recommend this book but if, like me, you tend to read any book about books, you will probably read it anyway. You might not be wasting your time? I'm really still not sure.
ella026's review against another edition
5.0
A truly magical and enchanting book with such a wide scope and I can barely find the words to describe it. To me, this is a book where it’s best to go in blind to discover the winding paths of a story that feels like it should never end. But this I find is always the case when it comes to portal fantasies.
We start following Taryn, a woman broken with grief over the murder of her sister and a successful author of a book about all the things that threaten libraries. But her book attracts all the wrong attention and finds her in the company of daemons, fae, talking ravens and even Odin. Taryn teams up with a strange fae man who can never be seen clearly and holds the key to other worlds. Their quest is for the Firestarter, a scroll that has survived many library fires and one she mentioned in her book. This is a case of a book in a book that I so desperately want to read, and Taryn’s many impassioned defences of public libraries only spur it.
This odd book certainly meanders at times given its length as we go from fae lands, purgatory, and Arthurian legend. It does also feel like there was a lot that I missed on the first read and this wasn’t helped by the fact that I listened to the audiobook. At some point, I want to pick up a physical copy to read and pick up all that I didn’t catch the first time around.
The narration was incredible, and I loved every second of Ann-Marie Duff’s performance. Her accents for the fae characters were dreamy and she perfectly encapsulates each character’s voice. It got to the point that when I was reading other books, I was doing it in her voice because I could not get enough. I look forward to more of Duff’s work.
This certainly isn’t a book for everyone but it’s one that I fell in love with over its long course. A dreamy and at some points nightmarish journey that like The Starless Sea, reveres the power of storytelling. A book of tragedy that will slowly lure you in.
Thanks to Penguin Random House for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
We start following Taryn, a woman broken with grief over the murder of her sister and a successful author of a book about all the things that threaten libraries. But her book attracts all the wrong attention and finds her in the company of daemons, fae, talking ravens and even Odin. Taryn teams up with a strange fae man who can never be seen clearly and holds the key to other worlds. Their quest is for the Firestarter, a scroll that has survived many library fires and one she mentioned in her book. This is a case of a book in a book that I so desperately want to read, and Taryn’s many impassioned defences of public libraries only spur it.
This odd book certainly meanders at times given its length as we go from fae lands, purgatory, and Arthurian legend. It does also feel like there was a lot that I missed on the first read and this wasn’t helped by the fact that I listened to the audiobook. At some point, I want to pick up a physical copy to read and pick up all that I didn’t catch the first time around.
The narration was incredible, and I loved every second of Ann-Marie Duff’s performance. Her accents for the fae characters were dreamy and she perfectly encapsulates each character’s voice. It got to the point that when I was reading other books, I was doing it in her voice because I could not get enough. I look forward to more of Duff’s work.
This certainly isn’t a book for everyone but it’s one that I fell in love with over its long course. A dreamy and at some points nightmarish journey that like The Starless Sea, reveres the power of storytelling. A book of tragedy that will slowly lure you in.
Thanks to Penguin Random House for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
dainalohr's review against another edition
1.0
DNF: I wanted so badly to like and get into this book, but I found it confusing and difficult to follow. Eventually I just gave up on it.
michellecoleman's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting but totally unclear what is happening or why it is happening. Waaay to over complicated. Also it feels like it’s constantly a retelling of other stories or myths, but I think it’s actually not. Or maybe it’s about world building, but I’m not convinced the world is clearly built either.